Friday, August 20, 2010

Forced Charity

How many of you have done charity before? To me, charity has to come from the heart, willingly. But when charity is forced upon us, how would you feel? A few days back, upon entering the house after school, my kid ran up to me beaming from ear to ear. He showed me a small package with a pair of socks, and some stationery in it. He asked me to open up the packet as he wanted to check out its contents. No, i didnt get round to even touching it as he managed to tear the whole thing apart. I didnt give much thought to it until later on at night. In his schoolbag, i found a form for parents to fill out if we decide to keep the package he brought back, or order extra if we wish to. We're to return the package unopened if we dont want it. Isnt that a bit too late, i ask of you.

Upon closer inspection, the package was handed out to school children by a non-government organisation for the disabled. And this is one of their fund-raising ways. I have nothing against helping the disabled. But then, i abhor the way this is carried out. Now, when small kids are handed these small packages, how many can refrain from checking out its contents without their parents' permission? I really do feel cheated by being forced to pay for items that i dont want to begin with, charity or no charity. Why cant they just let us parents decide whether to buy or not? All that's needed is a picture of the contents with a description and its cause on the ordering form. But no, the NGO's marketing/fund-raising department finds that it's way faster to rake in money with this strategy. And the school is the accomplice by allowing them to do so.

Oh, of course i can just pack everything back and hand it back to his teacher. Abuthen, it's not going to look good as the contents were already in pieces. After all, it's only 5 bucks. Yes, 5 bucks from how many victimized parents, let me ask.

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